Crews prepare to repave various spots across island roads

The Formentera Council's Office of Infrastructure and Mobility report that Monday, February 19, repairs and upgrades will be performed on several points across Formentera's network of arterials.

In la Savina crews will repair a raised pedestrian crossing on highway PM-820-2, goes towards Illetes. Likewise, in es Ca Marí they will not only repave the road surface and tackle assorted flaws, but they will also reposition a speed bump. Upgrades and action to strengthen the road surface are also in the works at several points along the Porto-Salé road. A range of road work is planned for the es Mal Pas road as well, as is the replacement of a speed bump near the bar in es Cap.

Asbestos removal drive in full swing

Thursday, 15 February 2018 16:09

This week Formentera's Office of Environment will continue a push to encourage islanders to remove uralite (or more commonly, asbestos) from their homes.

The first days of the effort saw crews focussed on removing the offending material and asphalt cloth in nine areas near rubbish containers. Home visits kicked off this Thursday.

Environment secretary Daisee Aguilera was enthusiastic about the interest Formenterencs have demonstrated in ridding their homes of the hazardous material. She noted this year about forty households have requested the service, which involves employees from an authorised firm overseeing controlled pick-up and treatment.

The Council helps out households by partially reimbursing costs of removal and transport of the asbestos to the Spanish mainland, not to mention by providing the special sacks used in the process. Participating renters and homeowners are charged a fee based on the sort and amount of material removed, with the final sum reflecting the Council's collaboration.

The asbestos-removal initiative was agreed on at the Formentera Council's August plenary assembly.

Formentera cinema turns 30

Thursday, 15 February 2018 15:24

The Formentera Council's Office of Culture reports that this year the island's cinema, or Sala Municipal de Cultura, will celebrate thirty years since opening.

The story of Formentera's “Hall of Culture” can be traced to the commemoration of Sant Jaume in 1987 and a conference which included the participation of historian Joan Marí Cardona. The stable, uninterrupted programming the Sala is known for today would begin a year later, on February 20, 1988, when, with the help of professionalised management, it was transformed into a multipurpose, 268-person capacity hall that played both as a centre for cultural programming and meeting place. What better pretext for the task than cinema, one of the most transcendent languages of artistic expression in modern society.

Thirty years after the Sala's first audiences saw La Misión, the site is a premier cultural outpost in constant renovation. The cinema's switch to digital was an expression of this, part of the Sala's passion for innovation in the service of islanders. It is this that makes the Sala a motor for up-to-date, stable film programming every Friday and Sunday of the year.

The cinema also hosts stage productions, music and dance series, conferences, book talks and theatre for kids, and serves as a backdrop for performing arts courses in theatre and dance.

Thirty-year celebrationTo celebrate the event, at 9.00pm on Tuesday, February 20, the cinema will give a free screening of La Bamba, a film that originally ran the last week of March, in 1988, and generated the cinema's largest showing to date.

Tickets this weekend and next (February 16, 18, 23 and 25) are specially priced at €3. On Saturday the 24th, following Evocación, a recital by Formentera municipal school of music and dance teachers Nieves Portas and Jose Jaime Hidalgo de la Torre, light hors-d'oeuvres and cava will be served.

The Formentera Council would like to thank all the individuals whose efforts have made cinema possible on the island over the last thirty years.

This weekend Formentera's Office of Culture and Festivities presents Les aventures de Gepeto i Pinotxo, a show for the whole family included in the Illa a Escena initiative to promote theatre.

La Fornal arrives with their take on the classic which, penned by Carlo Collodi in the late 19th century, unfolds in a tiny Italian village, where two old friends meet and decide to build a puppet. Their creation, Pinotxo, will be the son Gepeto has always wanted. But, a born troublemaker, the little wooden boy will be anything but what his father had in mind. Pinotxo's assorted adventures will leave him open to everything from disappointment and frustration to the splendour of becoming a real boy.

Tickets for the production, which hits Formentera's Sala de Cultura at 6.00pm on Saturday, February 17, are three euros.

Set in a room not much larger than a playpen, the show presents a wash of on-stage techniques which position it somewhere between storytelling and classical theatre. Props come to life, shadows are a source of light and puppets help the audience get their bearings.

The show is part of TALENT IB 2018, an initiative of the Govern's Institut d'Estudis Baleàrics.

The troupeWith over 25 years' experience under their belts and a dedicated venue to call home, La Fornal d'Espectacles offer a supportive, creative space for their member artists' independently-run projects.

The team disembark this weekend on Formentera for a performance on Saturday, February 17 at 6.00pm in the cinema. Tickets for the 50-minute show are three euros and available at the box office the day of the event.